Thursday, January 24, 2008

Looking Back at some Earlier Quilts

Since I decimated my website while I take time to reorganize it, I am going to begin posting some pictures of quilts I have made in the past. They will not be in any particular order. Rather, I am going to group them by subject, technique, style, or whatever seems to fit the set of quilts that I select. I will be posting more photos, so come back often.

The first set of photos are pictoral applique quilts. I really love making these kind of quilts; they "come alive" as I make them. Take a look...

"The Barrel Racer" This quilt shows a barrel racer at a rodeo -- the rider is racing around one of three barrels, in a contest to make the loop in the shortest amount of time. I loved doing this quilt because it showcased a woman in a rodeo competition. I made it to represent my local "Go Texan Rodeo Committee" at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. It managed to help garner a $10,000 scholarship for a local student - and that's what I call a win-win situation!

"Discovery"I made this quilt back in 1992 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Columbus' voyage to the New World. It was only the second pictoral quilt I'd ever made. I had always wanted to find a use for a "cartouche" (that scrolly-frame around the ships and Columbus) in a quilt, and this quilt seemed to beg me to use one. Notice the three gold stars in the upper left. They are gold lame' fabric. I was invited to have some fabric flown onboard the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1992, so these stars spent a lot of time on their own voyage; they traveled 5.7 million miles and completed 221 orbits of the earth. This quilt holds invaluable memories of the years I worked for NASA.

"Cowgirl"This quilt was really a "practice" piece for me. I have always wanted to make a pictoral quilt of my children - but I know that I need to work on technique first. This was my attempt to work on technique.

"Apple of My Eye"And finally, here is a pictoral quilt of my 3-year old grand daughter. When I made the quilt, she was actually carrying a bucket of seashells down at the beach, but my local quilt guild had challenged everyone to make a quilt with a "fruit" theme. Hence, she suddenly started carrying apples (or so it seems!). I promise to reshoot the picture and replace it with a larger one at some point...

Okay - that's enough posting for me for now. I'll post some precision-pieced quilts in a few days. Happy stitching to everyone!

2 comments:

Sue, I love your quilt you did on your granddaughter. I have a picture of one of my grandsons I would like to do the same with. Do you teach a class on this at Quakertown? If not any instructions anywhere on how to do it? I am doing your Night Before Christmas and love it.(I have tried posting this 3 times hope it only went thru once!)